


Not much has changed (but they live under water)

by starsandnightskies



Series: Merman!Louis [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Merman!Louis, mermen and mermaids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-19
Updated: 2013-08-19
Packaged: 2017-12-24 01:05:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/933289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsandnightskies/pseuds/starsandnightskies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry's getting used to the life under water with his lovely Louis by his side.</p><p>[Sequel to Seeing Life in Different Colours.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not much has changed (but they live under water)

**Not much has changed (but they live under water)**

Life in Atlantis was way better than Harry expected. Originally, he thought he’d never be able to live with a tail. But, thanks to Louis, it had all gotten easier. Everyone in Atlantis was so nice and friendly, it was almost unreal. The two of them had gotten some comments on how they were soul mates but so far, neither of them had made a move on the other. Which Harry was glad for, because he first needed some time to get used to his new life in Atlantis.

“Hey Haz, would you like to meet my family today?” Louis asks, barging into Harry’s room without knocking (Harry likes referring to Louis’ guest room as his own room). Harry’s kind of used to it by now.

“Of course I’d like to! But why now? I thought you were afraid your mum would immediately arrange a marriage?” Harry says.

“She probably would”, Louis agrees, “but I can’t find myself to care anymore, really. And I want to introduce you to my sisters! They’d love to meet you and the two youngest, Daisy and Phoebe, have been bugging me about it for days now.”

Louis hadn’t taken Harry to meet his family right away. He thought it would be better to let Harry settle down for a while, let him get used to everything that comes with being a merman. Harry was thankful that Louis was so thoughtful because he didn’t think he could’ve handled more first impressions the day his ship sank.

Also, they hadn’t run into Niall and Zayn yet but Harry had figured Zayn was taking care of Niall like Louis was taking care of him. Louis hadn’t left his side since they’d arrived in Atlantis but apparently, he had been in touch with his sisters through some kind of phone. Harry had no idea. There were still many things he had to learn about the merman world.

“So you think I’m ready? To go out into the big scary ocean?” Harry teases and Louis laughs.

“No big scary ocean for you, mister. You won’t be going out of Atlantis without me.”

“Who am I, Nemo?” Harry jokes and Louis frowns.

“Who’s Nemo?” he asks.

“Never mind”, Harry mumbles. He seems to be forgetting that they don’t have electronics under water and that therefore, they don’t know Nemo or any movie. They do have music, but it’s not like human music. Harry doesn’t quite know how to describe this music, but he likes it anyway (perhaps because Louis likes to hum along and Harry could listen to his voice for weeks without getting irritated).

Louis shrugs and takes his keys. “Shall we?”

“You mean right now?” Harry asks surprised.

Louis looks at him. “Of course! When I say today I actually mean right away. Thought you’d figured that out by now.”

Harry laughs. “Not really”, he says, “but it’s fine. Does your Mum know we’re coming?”

Louis shrugs again. “She’ll let us in anyway. Come on, let’s go.” He pulls Harry up from the bed and they swim out the door, Louis locking it behind them.

“I’ll take your keys before you lose them again”, Harry laughs. A few days ago they went to get food because they were running out and Louis had dropped his keys in the supermarket: Harry had to pick them up behind him to ensure they would still be able to get into Louis’ apartment). Louis sticks out his tongue but hands his keys to Harry anyway.

The first day in Atlantis, Harry was really baffled by how a merman’s way of living was so very similar to a human’s way of living. They have a supermarket, a hospital, pet shops (although the pets are different: instead of kitties and puppies they had sea horses and turtles as pets in Atlantis), houses made out of bricks and cement and many, many more things that were so like human stuff.

There were, however, no electronics and Harry was still figuring out how mermen called one another. He had seen Louis holding a shell to his ear before but he wasn’t sure if that was their way of calling someone or if he was just being Louis.

“Harry, hurry!” Louis whines. “My Mum’s waiting!”

“Lou, babe, she doesn’t even know you’re coming”, Harry chuckles. Does he detect a light blush on Louis’ face? No, probably not. He’s just making things up.

“She’s waiting anyway, she’s wanted to meet you ever since I told her about you”, Louis argues. He’s tugging at Harry’s wrist, trying to get him to swim faster and Harry gives in. There’s no use in arguing with Louis when he’s like this, Harry has already found out.

It’s only a short swim to Louis’ family home.

There’s another thing different about living in Atlantis: no one takes note of the time. Time is unimportant in the lives of mermen and to be honest, that’s the thing Harry needs to get used to the most. Back when he was a human (not that it’s that long ago), everything was scheduled on time. He had to be at school by then, he had to be asleep by then, et cetera. It was liberating to be free of time.

“We’re here!” Louis announces as he comes to a stop in front of a nice, cosy house.

“It looks nice”, Harry says.

“It is nice”, Louis respond. “Come on. Oh, by the way, I’ll warn you on forehand because my sisters might crush you. You’re warned.”

“’S a little late to be warning me, isn’t it?” Harry laughs and Louis rolls his eyes fondly.

“It’s not like you had a choice in coming with me or not.”

“Good to know.” Louis rolls his eyes again and knocks on the door. It only takes a few seconds for it to open and everything is kind of blurry from then. Harry barely registers two girls crashing into him and he hears Louis complain in the background about ‘how he is their brother and he should get hugged first’.

“We see you once a week, Lou, and this is a new friend who used to be human! He needs to tell us all about the human life!” one of them exclaims.

“Yeah, you’re boring and he’s interesting”, her doppelganger says, having a tight grip on Harry’s waist. Harry figures they are Daisy and Phoebe. He sees two older girls in the doorway and the one with the blonde hair approaches them and untangles the twins from Harry’s tail.

“Sorry about them. They’re just happy to  _finally_  meet you”, the girl says, throwing Louis an accusing look at the word  _finally_.

“What?” Louis exclaims. “I was letting him get used to having a tail!”

“Sure you were, Lou. I’m Charlotte, but everyone calls me Lottie. It’s nice to meet you”, she introduces herself to Harry with a firm handshake.

“I’m Harry”, Harry says.

Lottie smiles. “I know. Louis has told me all about you.” Harry raises an eyebrow at Louis.

“They kept asking me about you?” Louis tries and Lottie rolls her eyes.

“Lies, Louis Tomlinson. You kept telling us everything about-  _Oh my God_.” Harry doesn’t quite understand where the last part comes from all of a sudden. “Lou, is he-?”

“Yeah, he is. Don’t push him, we only know each other for a week.”

“So that’s why you kept talking about him!” the other girl says from the doorway. She has brown hair and piercing blue eyes.

“Can someone tell me what’s going on here? I’m completely lost”, Harry says confused.

“Your tail matches your eyes. Has Lou told you about the whole soul mate thing? I’m Felicite, by the way, but everyone calls me Fizzy.”

“Nice to meet you, and yes, Lou has told me about that. I know how we’re supposed to be soul mates and we do get along very well but we’re not rushing into things”, Harry says, finally catching on. He remembers when Louis told him about the soul mate thing, on the first day he had gotten this tail.

**~**

_"Is my tail this colour for a reason?" Harry asks, because Louis answered most of his questions already._

_"It's the colour of your eyes, strangely enough. That only happens to two people every generation and erm-" Louis hesitates._

_"And what?" Harry presses, curiosity sparked._

_"It means that those two people are meant to be together, like soul mates", Louis rushes but Harry doesn't quite get it. Until he sees Louis' eyes. Cerulean, like his tail. That’s when he realizes._

**~**

“You’ll end up getting married anyway”, Fizzy says.

“Felicite”, Louis hisses, “you can’t just say that to someone you just met!”

“Lou, you know it’s true.” Fizzy is clearly not impressed by Louis and Harry finds it quite funny. “Every soul mate couple has gotten married, whether they hated each other at the beginning or not. They fell in love eventually.”

“Okay, that’s enough harassing Louis and his friend for today, Fizzy”, an older voice says and Harry turns around to see a friendly looking woman with kind eyes.

“Mum, this is Harry. Harry, this is my Mum Jay”, Louis introduces them and he sticks his tongue out at Fizzy who rolls her eyes in return.

“Mum, you know they’ll be getting married in a year max. I mean, look at them! Completely smitten with each other”, Lottie says.

“Nah, I’d say six months max”, Fizzy says thoughtfully and Louis blushes a deep red.

“Girls, that’s enough. Go inside”, Jay says. “Harry dear, it’s lovely to meet you. Louis has told us all about you.” She ushers the girls inside (Daisy and Phoebe are already nowhere to be seen anymore) and Louis takes Harry’s hand and pulls him inside as well.

“I hope they’re not annoying you too much”, Louis whispers in Harry’s ear as they enter the living room. His face is still slightly red and Harry finds it endearing.

“No, not at all! I love your family”, Harry whispers back with a squeeze to Louis’ hand and Louis giggles softly.

“I swear they’re not normally this intrusive and annoying.” After a small silence, he adds “Well, that’s actually a lie. They are intrusive and annoying, like all the time, but I love them nonetheless.” Harry laughs at that.

When they enter the living room, Harry sees all four girls looking at them and Fizzy nudges Lottie and they giggle together. It’s only then that he realizes he’s still holding Louis’ hand, but he’s too comfortable to drop it. Besides, he doesn’t see why holding hands with Louis is a bad thing: Louis is very pretty and he just so happens to be Harry’s soul mate.

Harry notices all four Tomlinson girls have a pink tail, but every one of them is a different shade of pink. Lottie’s is very light pink, Fizzy’s is neon pink, Daisy’s (or Phoebe’s, Harry isn’t quite sure) is dark pink and the other twin’s is bright pink. Louis is kind of the odd one out with a cerulean tail. Even Jay’s tail is pink, but hers is more of a vintage pink.

“So Harry, what would you like to eat?” Ah yes, another thing Harry needs to get used to. Mermen don’t drink and neither do mermaids. They only eat and Harry isn’t quite sure if he wants to know  _what_ they eat. He just chews and swallows without looking at his food (Louis’ cooking is quite horrible).

“Just something simple please”, he manages, trying not to let anyone know he has no idea what they even eat. It doesn’t quite work; Fizzy snorts and Lottie suppresses a chuckle. “What?”

“Do you even have any idea what we eat?” Lottie asks.

“…no”, Harry mumbles guiltily. Lottie starts explaining something about fish in cookies and Harry tries not to throw up in the middle of her explanation.

“Lotts, I think Harry might vomit if you don’t stop talking now”, Louis intervenes and Lottie stops talking.

“It’s not that bad?!”

“It is”, Harry groans.

“Still not used to life with a tail, huh?” Fizzy says and Harry shakes his head.

“I still miss my legs. But I know that if Louis hadn’t turned me, I wouldn’t have been alive anymore. Also, I don’t have to rely on oxygen anymore since I don’t need to breathe.”

-

The rest of the afternoon is spent at Louis’ place and Harry lets the twins braid his hair and put pink clips in it and Louis watches with a wide smile on his face. After more food (Harry would call it dinner but mermen eat whenever they feel like it, so from that point of view it’s not exactly dinner), Louis decides it’s time for them to go home.

“Already?” Daisy complains and Phoebe wraps her arms around Harry’s torso in a very tight grip.

“Don’t go”, she murmurs and Harry laughs.

“I’m not moving away, we’re just going home for the night”, he says with a smile, gently untangling Phoebe’s arms from his body. “If you want, we can visit again tomorrow!”

“You have to come tomorrow”, Daisy says.

“Promise you’ll come again tomorrow”, Phoebe pouts and Louis is smiling widely at the conversation taking place in front of him.

“I promise”, Harry declares and he takes Louis’ hand. “Thanks for the food, Jay. Do you mind if we come over again tomorrow?”

“Not at all”, Jay smiles. “I don’t see Louis often enough.”

“See you tomorrow!” Lottie and Fizzy call from the kitchen and Daisy and Phoebe reluctantly let go of Harry.

“We’ll see you tomorrow”, Harry waves and then he and Louis leave.

“I hope you know you’re now stuck with my family forever”, Louis laughs as they swim home (even though it’s Louis’ apartment, Harry had quickly taken up on calling it  _home_ ). “They absolutely love you.”

“Do you?” Harry asks.

Louis halts and Harry stops swimming too. “Are you serious?”

“Yes, actually.”

“Of course I love you, you idiot”, Louis exclaims.

“Well, can I kiss you?” Harry smiles.

“Of course you idiot. Actually, I think you just ruined the-” Louis is cut off when Harry presses his lips to Louis and lets his feelings take over. Louis freezes for a moment before starting to move his lips with Harry’s and he sighs into Harry’s mouth. Harry’s hand slide to Louis’ waist and he pulls him closer before slipping his tongue in and he licks messily into Louis’ mouth. Their tails tangle together and  _wow_ , Louis is a really good kisser.

They break apart when they hear someone yelling at them to “Get a room”.

“I think Fizzy might be right”, Louis says in Harry’s ear as they’re done giggling about getting caught snogging in the middle of the city.

“Right about what?”

“About how we might be getting married within six months.”

**Author's Note:**

> YAY I made a sequel.


End file.
